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This weekend, Anderson Silva comes back from his grizzly leg-injury when he takes on Stockton’s finest, Nick Diaz. UFC president Dana White has stated that Silva could face the winner of Weidman-Belfort if victorious, which seems relatively insane given that he is fighting a welterweight coming off a two year vacation (UFC politics, baby!). The possibility of Belfort-Silva 2 could be huge especially in Brazil, but whether Silva wants to fight against a Brazilian is another question. If normality remains with Weidman trouncing the-now-off-TRT-Belfort, Weidman-Silva 3 is a fight I would actually pass up.

Both meetings ended bizarrely, with the second fight ending more unusual than their first, as crazy as that was. Silva has gone 0-2 opposite Weidman, and in the twelve or so minutes of action between them, its fair to say that Weidman has gotten the better of Silva. So instead of playing a (literally) broken record, here are four possible opponents the GOAT could face off with if he wins or loses at UFC 183, because, you know, he still has a few fights left on his new contract.

MMA fans by now know that both Anderson Silva and Nick Diaz failed drugs tests leading up to/after their UFC 183 headlining act. On a fight card that promised so much leading up to the main event, the fight itself turned out to be more of a frustration between the two middleweights than anything to write home about.

But hey, no big deal right? Anderson Silva is back, Nick Diaz gave the people what they wanted and we all felt like we got our money’s worth.

According to Brazilian MMA Athletic Commission medical director Dr. Márcio Tannure, Silva should make a quick recovery, and his UFC 183 fight against Nick Diaz is not in jeopardy:

“He felt a sharp pain because of contracture. It hurts a lot, really, but it will not change anything in terms of training. The problem he had justified the pain, but it will not result in a withdrawal or cancellation of the fight.”

Anderson Silva has yet to make a public statement about the matter, although three days ago he was hyping up something called The Spine Chair as “the best chair.” I hope you kept your receipt, dude.

As anyone who appeared on the eighth season of The Ultimate Fighter could surely tell you, Anderson Silva can be a bit of an arrogant prick while training. It’s not that he means to be, but when you’re one of the baddest dudes on this or any other planet, you almost have to show off every now and again, right? Lord knows that if I possessed the fighting skills of Anderson, I’d be walking into every Buffalo Wild Wings on the eastern seaboard with a “Come at Me, Bro” t-shirt on, just waiting for some roided-up Jersey trash to challenge my authority.

Less than a month out from his hotly-anticipated return to the octagon against Nick Diaz at UFC 183, it appears that Silva felt it necessary to remind one of his training partners of this exact factn. It’s the only explanation I can think of as to why Silva would not only KO the poor bastard (who was wearing full headgear, BTW) during a sparring session, but continue pummeling him for a good ten seconds after doing so. Seriously, what the hell, Anderson?

The footage was filmed by Globo and posted by Guilherme Cruz earlier today. My theory: The guy he was sparring with made an off-the-cuff remark about the Silva family barbecue just moments before this video started rolling.

Now, if this match happened two years ago, the hype would be off the charts. But today, the MMA community is looking at this event with curiosity rather than fevered passion. Sure. Eyeballs will be on this fight — mostly to see what Anderson Silva will look like in the ring following his horrific injury. But Nick Diaz as his opponent? Eh…maybe not so much.

What the hell happened?

It was just a short year-and-a-half ago when the MMA world was going wild for UFC 158: St-Pierre vs. Diaz (aka UFC 158: CANADA!…America’s Hat). This was MMA alchemy at its finest. Georges had defended his belt seven times and was clearly the king of his weight class. Nick was the trash talkin’, dope smokin’, Nashville brawlin’ fanboy favorite.

UFC 158 pulled in 950,000 pay-per-view buys. Not too shabby, especially compared to the buyrates the UFC has been pulling inlately. Both guys had hardcore MMA fan heat going in, but after St-Pierre dismantled Diaz, it proved what we pretty much knew going into the fight: Georges is a better wrestler, striker and tactician than Diaz. Period.

After beating up a past-his-prime BJ Penn, the “super fight” with St. Pierre did nothing to help Nick’s reputation. Quite the contrary, it damaged it even more and showed why Diaz isn’t on anyone’s Top 10 P4P list anymore. Now, after retiring “for realz” and spending nearly two years out of the cage (*COUGH* “ring rust” *COUGH*) Diaz is coming back to take on one of, if not the, greatest fighter in MMA history. What?

I’m looking for Nick’s silver lining, but short of a pot-fueled-double-middle-fingered-gogoplata or a pants-shitting-KO, I don’t see an upside for the scrappy pugilist from Stockton. Let’s take a few moments to be negative bastards and look at the probable and unfortunate near-future for the elder Diaz…

Former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva is three weeks away from his fun little circus-fight against Nick Diaz at UFC 183, and if he wins, the UFC will give the Spider another chance to get his middleweight title back. UFC president Dana White revealed the plan last night on FOX Sports 1’s UFC Tonight:

“Diaz and Anderson Silva are fighting, and obviously if Anderson Silva wins that fight, and whether Vitor or Weidman win, then you have Anderson Silva versus either one of those guys,” White said.

“Obviously” is not the word I would have used here. For one thing, beating a semi-retired welterweight in a tune-up fight shouldn’t clinch anybody a middleweight title shot, even Anderson Silva. And also, what if Chris Weidman beats Vitor Belfort at UFC 184 next month (a likely scenario now that Belfort is totally off his meds)? Is anybody clamoring for a third fight between Silva and Weidman, outside of the Spider Superfans who remain convinced that the knockout and the broken leg were both “flukes”?

If you didn’t happen to catch last night’s NSAC hearing because you don’t even work part-time for an MMA blog and have a life, then boy did you miss out (not really). Set to a soothing soundtrack of nearby construction work, the 3-hour meeting was as much of a non-factor as it possibly could have been. At one point, Pat Lundvall’s phone went off and it was the Benny Hill theme song. Seriously. It happened. Check out the “blooper reel” (a blooper reel!) above for another highlight.

And the NSAC themselves, my God (*kisses fingers*). In a meeting that was supposed to determine the fighting futures of Anderson Silva and Nick Diaz, the chairmen and women of the most frustratingly incompetent organization outside of a Comcast call center spent over an hour discussing the idea of placing a computer chip in MMA gloves in order to more accurately score fights. They spent another hour arguing about whether or not judges should be scoring fights with iPads, because penciling in a number between 8 and 10 is just getting too damn confusing. Did I mention the cosmic irony of the Benny Hill theme song?

But in the few moments when NSAC wasn’t struggling to take a piss without dribbling on their shoes, they did actually manage to reveal some information regarding Anderson Silva’s post-fight drug test. No spoilers, but it will breaka you heart.

The UFC hosted a press conference earlier today in Rio de Janeiro, in which former middleweight champion Anderson Silva and his coaches answered questions about the Spider’s return to fighting. Silva, who will take on Nick Diaz at UFC 183 in January, was very complimentary about Diaz’s skills in the cage. He also stated his desire to earn the UFC middleweight title again, and hopes that Vitor Belfort beats Chris Weidman in their upcoming fight so that the belt returns to Brazil. Also, a bunch of reporters ask Silva about the condition of his leg. It gets pretty repetitive in the beginning, so be prepared for that. Short version: It’s no problem, it will not break again.

Coincidentally, today is the eight-year anniversary of UFC 64, the event where Anderson Silva first became UFC middleweight champion by knocking out Rich Franklin. At 39 years old, can Silva remain a title threat in the year 2015?

The phrase “fighting is in our DNA” is thrown around a lot these days and has inspired many a high quality piece of merchandise (LMAO), but does it actually have any bearing on real people? Like many hyperbolic, stupid, “sportsy” statements, it is both frustratingly vague and can be applied to both of this weekends main eventers, albeit in completely different ways.